"We're Not Kindergarteners, We're Almost First Graders!"

Yes, it's true! The kiddos have gone from babies (well, almost) starting kindergarten to being almost  first graders. It's amazing how time flies, especially with the little guys (and gals). The growth they have made from the first day in August to today has been tremendous and before you know it, the last day of school will be here (get your hankies ready, mom and dad).

I feel like it's been forever since I've blogged! That winter vacation, plus track out was a long one. That being said, the kids have come back and gotten back into the routine with no problems (and that's with switching classrooms, too!). Here is a quick run-down of what we have been working on this week.
Reading- sequencing stories, focusing on what happened first, second, and so on and so forth.
Phonics- in our "Fundations" program, we have been working on identifying the number of syllabels in a word by clapping. For example, the word "pizza" has 2 syllables and the word "dinosaur" has 3 syllables.
Writing-we have started to work on writing opinion writing pieces. We have focused on not just saying, "I like monkeys" but, also giving a reason why. For example, "I like monkeys because they swing from trees. They are cute." Of course, we continue to work on using capital letters at the beginning of a sentence, spaces between words, end punctuation, and sounding out our words to spell them.
Math-identifying 3D shapes (cones, cubes, spheres, and cylinders) as well as comparing and contrasting them with 2D (circles, squares, triangles, rectangles, hexagons) and 3D shapes. I have been challenging the kids to find 3D shapes on their own and they have been doing a great job!
"The listen to reading crate is a cube"-Caleb
"Part of the tool box is a cube" -Reid
"An ice cream cone in the cafeteria is a cone"-Hannah
"A soccer ball is a sphere"-VeRon
"The paper towels are a cylinder"-Hutton
"A cup of ice cream is a cylinder" -Kaylee
You can also practice at home by encouraging your kids to identify 2D and 3D shapes at home.

Report Card Envelopes
Just a friendly reminder, the yellow report card envelopes need to be signed and returned. With the long holiday, some folks have seemed to overlooked it.

Yearbooks
Yearbook order forms went home this week in your child's Kid Connection envelope. The deadline to order is Friday, February 1st

Book Fair
Our preview day for the book fair is February 5th. On this day, the kids will get to look at what books they would like to purchase. They WILL NOT BUY books on this day.
Students will be able to buy books during school on February 8th.
Students can also buy books on February 7th at Moonlight Reading Night (an after school event). Here, students and their families are invited to participate in fun reading activities such as reading with a dog or flashlight reading. The book fair will also be open at this time, so you can purchase books with your child.

 As always, feel free to email or call should you have any questions or concerns. Enjoy the rest of your week:-)